Anouter baileyorouter wardis the defended outer enclosure of acastle.[1]It protects theinner baileyand usually contains those ancillary buildings used for the management of the castle or the supply of its occupants. These domestic buildings could includeworkshops,livestockstalls andstables;storage facilities such asbarns,shedsandgranaries,as well as quarters forservantssuch asmaids,farm workers,and even the castle governors orcastellans.In many cases there was also abrewery,abakehouseand akitchen,if the latter was not located in the hall orpalas.[2]An outer bailey was often called abase courtin England. Depending on topography it could also be referred to as alower baileyorlower ward,the keep being in theupper baileyor ward.Chepstow Castlehas lower, middle and upper baileys.[1]
The domestic buildings of the continentalschloss,often a stately home or palace, may also be referred to as an outer ward (German:Vorburg). These frequently contained acarriage houseor acavalier house,buildings that were not common in medieval castles. Large castles often have more than one bailey; examples includeMonschauandBürresheim.At some larger castles, markets were held in the outer bailey (c.f.suburbium).
Outer baileys were usually enclosed and protected by aring walland separated from the actual living area of the castle – the inner ward and keep – by amoat,a wall and a gate.
Inlowland castles,the outer bailey is usually arranged in a half-moon shape around the main castle. In the case ofhill castles,the topographic features of the terrain had to be taken account of, with the result that the outer bailey was usually slightly lower than the inner ward, hence the alternative names of "lower bailey" or "lower ward".Rudelsburg CastleinSaxony-Anhaltis one of the rare cases of a hill castle where both baileys are at the same level.
In many cases the main entrance to the inner living quarters led through the outer bailey, which thus formed a kind of defensive buffer and often also served as refuge for the villagers who lived outside the castle walls. This explains why thecastle chapelwas often found in the bailey: it served as the parish church for thecommoners.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abFriar, Stephen (2003).The Sutton Companion to Castles,Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22.ISBN978-0-7509-3994-2
- ^Herbert de Caboga-Stuber:Kleine Burgenkunde.Nachdruck der Ausgabe von 1961. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne, [1993],ISBN3-7972-0496-X,p. 33.
Literature
edit- Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): Dictionary of castles, palaces and fortresses. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004,ISBN3-15-010547-1,page 255-256.
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: Castles and tower houses of the German Middle Ages. Volume 1 Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002,ISBN3-7995-0104-5,page 53-55.
- Otto Piper:Burgenkunde. Reprint of the edition of 1912. Weltbild, Augsburg 1994,ISBN3-89350-554-7,pp. 10–11.